The Day CYPRES Saved My Life… with Raphaël Serrapica

My name is Raphael and I live in part of France – on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. I have been jumping here for two years. I now have 140 jumps and most of them are here on the island. Reunion is a very nice place to jump because it is not so big, and we have volcanoes and the ocean all around. There is only one dropzone on the island, but because of the area around we land at another location that is maybe 10kms away from the airport. So we drive to get in the plane, then fly away and land close to the beach.

I don’t think there is anything unusual about the jump – it was a normal day at the dropzone with some tandems and fun jumping. We fly a Pilatus so there is not too many people all on the plane together. I was following a tandem, which is something I like to do for fun and to practice. I am not training to fly camera or anything specific at this stage, but maybe later. We do not have a big amount of fun jumping on the island so following the tandems is something fun for me to do.

Reunion Island

This was not my first malfunction. I had one at nineteen jumps, but that was when I was still a new student, so it can be challenging to remember all of the details about what happened when you are learning everything at the start. I did not pack my canopy that time, but this time I did with my own equipment so it is the first one where I have made a mistake. I have my new rig now for maybe ten jumps and it has a Silhouette 190 inside, so I think it is correct for my experience level.

The jump was good, and the deployment seemed normal at the start, with my canopy flying level but when I released my brakes the one on the left side was blocked somehow. It began to turn and then dive to the left, which is when I decided to do my emergency procedures. I could not figure out what the tangle was with my brake line, so chose to cut away and use my reserve.

What Went Wrong?

I deployed my main originally at 900 meters (2700 feet) which for this kind of jump I think is ok. The tandem always pulls higher up, and the area we have to land in is pretty big, maybe a kilometre long by five hundred meters. Also though, outside of this, there are not really other places. So if things were different it could be tricky. I was just ten or twenty meters from where I originally learned to land though, so everything was good.

I don’t have an RSL on my rig, but I think I understand how things can work with or without one. When I cut away with no RSL, it is better to get stable again on my belly if I have the height to do it. This is why I think my CYPRES activated. When I cut away from my canopy, I was on my back and needed to fix it. I think for me it is important to remember that I need to do something to fix the problem. I believe the CYPRES will work and it will save me, but when it was happening I was not thinking like this. All I am thinking is that I need to do something to fix it or I am going to the ground.

Decision Time

Maybe because I have had a cutaway before meant that I was not very shaken by it. You just think ok and get on with it. I tried to fix it but needed to decide quickly, so I went to my emergency procedures in time, but also low enough for my CYPRES to activate and cut my reserve loop – although I did not know about this until after.

Saved

Maybe if I had an RSL then my reserve would have come out faster and stopped me from activating my CYPRES, but then also because I was on my back after the cutaway there is a greater chance that I would get line twists on my reserve. Both things can maybe or maybe not become bigger problems, but I was ok to fix it and everything was fine. I was happy to go jump again right away and did so about an hour later.

I think the lesson is to check again how you pack things when they are new to you. I now have a metal pin to hold my brake toggles and will be careful about how I stow the excess line so that it cannot get tangled up. I am also just happy that I have a CYPRES in my rig and it is always turned on and ready to save me if I need it.